It's time to wrap up this mini-series on budgets and budgeting.

To recap: In the first article on better budgeting entitled Your key to personal financial growth I discussed some of my philosophy behind using a budget to pro-actively manage your financial situation. The second article, Getting to the Details, discussed putting the overall framework for your budget in place. In this article I'll show you how I use that framework to ensure my family's financial health and well-being.

The key to effective use of the budget categories I described in part 2 and shown here

is to put to practice the savings adage "pay yourself first." When we begin each financial period - each year, and then once again each month - we figuratively place money in each of the above categories. That money, and any left over in that category from previous periods, can then be used to pay for expenses which will occur in that category for the coming financial period.

Simple? Maybe an example to illustrate... I'll use my own discretionary account as an example. Discretionary is just my own grown up word for Allowance. That money is mine to do with whatever I want. At the beginning of each month my Discretionary budget category gets a fresh new $100 added to it's total. During the month anything I spend that falls under my discretion is deducted from that $100. When the bottom line in my Discretionary account goes to zero, I'm done. No more discretionary spending, not until next month. In the event I don't spend all $100 this month, the extra amount carries over to next month. The sum-total never expires, so in effect Discretionary is my own personal savings account should I choose to use it that way.

And the idea behind a savings account is exactly how some of the categories work. Automotive, for example, is really a roll-up category. Into the Automotive category goes all car spending. This includes an allocation for replacement. Each and every month we allocate a set amount to the replacement of our cars.

Hopefully you can see that in effect, each category is a miniature savings account within our overall financial picture. Never one to spend money I don't have, this method gives me a picture of where my money is and serves as a constant reminder of my family's financial priorities.

And speaking of priorities, it occurs to me you should know how financial priorities come to play in this process. My series on budgeting and budgets needs to be extended by one more. Next time I'll write my final, final article in the budgeting series, Using your budget to achieve your financial goals.